Assistant coach flashes back to Titanic tournament loss

Mark Fainaru-Wada, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, March 14, 1998

CHICAGO - Eric Reveno tried to go with the moment, tried to just let it flow through him and not allow it to consume him. The Stanford assistant coach had been here before, as a player, and it wasn't a pretty place.

Back in 1989, Reveno was part of the Stanford team that went 26-6 in the regular season and was a No. 3 seed in the East Region. The Cardinal were making their first trip to the NCAA Tournament in 47 years, they were a veteran team, they had high expectations.

The world came crashing down in a loss to 14th-seeded and unheard-of Siena. So, with No. 3 seed Stanford trailing 14th-seeded College of Charleston on Friday in the first round of this year's NCAA Tournament, Reveno had a flashback.

"It passed through my mind," said Reveno, a first-year assistant. "I don't know if it was a Zen mental exercise, but I was trying to let that thought go quickly through my brain. I was just trying to recognize it and let it go."

Reveno said this experience was far from identical to that one in '89. He said that team fell into sort of a "panic mode," whereas this team seemed more in control.

"It sort of felt like we were on the Titanic and didn't know what to do," he said. "This one felt like we just couldn't get the motor started."

FEELING IT: Western Michigan guard Rashod Johnson, who made eight of 15 3-pointers - including three key shots that were very difficult - in the Broncos' upset of Clemson, was asked about being in The Zone.

ETC.: Stanford's victory made it a first-round winner in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year. Only six other teams have matched that: Cincinnati, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Purdue and Utah. . . . The Cardinal (27-4) need one more win to match the school record for most victories in a season, set by the 1942 NCAA championship team. . . . If the Cardinal win Sunday's game, they will return home that night and then go back to St. Louis on Wednesday for the Midwest Regional finals, which begin on Friday.&lt;